NKVD Questionnaire1 #28

1. Name and Surname: Leon Eker
2. Place of Birth: Lwow
3. Marital status: single
4. Place of work: engineering student and secretary to the deputy of the Polish government in Karaganda [Kazakhstan]25. Address: Karaganda, 17 Zagorodna Street
6. Family supported by the accused in the USSR: father, Ozjasz Eker, and mother, Pepi Eker
7. Personal documents in possession of the former prisoner: no answer
8. Who ordered the arrest: NKVD3 of the Kazakh SSR
9. Place, date, circumstances of arrest: Karaganda, 23 July 1942, in a private apartment
10. Place, date, and circumstances of release: Karaganda, 27 October 1942, accompanied by an order to leave the city within 24 hours
11. Place, date and length of personal search: Karaganda, 23 July 1942, about five hours
Where was it conducteda. in an officeb. in an apartment: in an apartment12. The results of searcha. what was seized and what receipt was received concerning money, official seals, documents, official correspondence?At the time of arrest, official telegrams were seized and no receipt was issued, but there was a mention of the seizure in the minutes of the search.
b. what was seized of personal belongings? The temporary Polish passport which I never got back after release from prison.
c.what was left over, in whose care and what was the form of the receipt for the leftover belongings? no answer
13. The place and date of imprisonment: 23 July 1942
14. The place, date and circumstances of the beginning and end of investigation: 24 July 1942. At the time of release the investigation was not completed.
15. Place, time and circumstances ofa. the charge: early Octoberb.content of the formal charge including the paragraph and section of the Penal Code: anti-Soviet agitation, distribution of religious pictures, religious propaganda, helping citizens without previous acquaintance with them, Polish nationality and spying connected with it, betrayal of the Soviet state. Par. 955-10-11-1.
16. Questions asked during interrogation that were not part of the charge: my personal contacts with Polish intelligence, with Polish military intelligence in Poland, continuation of these contacts on Soviet territory
17. Treatmenta. by interrogators: Brutal and offensive to me and to Ambassador Kot.4 Mockery of everything that was dear to us, including religion.
b. in prison: relatively good18. Place, date, circumstances of sentencing: Karaganda, 27 October 1942.
19. Content of sentence: I was told that by the decision of a special meeting in Moscow I was sentenced for hostility to the USSR, and that I would be deported from the USSR.
20. Executive order and orders of the authorities during sentencing and during release from prison: I was told to sign a declaration that I was informed about the sentence and that I would leave Karaganda in 24 hours.
21. Names, surnames, and addresses of family members who have to be evacuated in connection with the deportation from the USSR of the accused: Ozjasz Eker, Pepi Eker, Emanuel Eker. They all are with me in Kuibyshev.5Signed: Leon Eker

NKVD Questionnaire #27

1. Name and Surname: Roza Eker
2. Place of Birth: the village of Pawlikowka, Sokal county, Lwow voivodship
3. Marital status: single
4. Place of work: theater actress and deputy of the Polish government in Karaganda [Kazakhstan]
5. Address: Karaganda 2, 17 Zagorodna Street
6. Family supported by the accused in the USSR: Ozjasz Eker, Pepi Eker, Emanuel Eker
7. Personal documents in possession of the former prisoner: Polish Theater and Film Artists' Union ID card
8. Who ordered the arrest: NKVD of the Kazakh SSR
9. Place, date, circumstances of arrest: Karaganda, 23 July 1942, in a private apartment
10. Place, date, and circumstances of release: Karaganda, 27 October 1942, accompanied by an order to leave the city within 24 hours
11. Place, date and length of personal search: Karaganda, 23 July 1942, about five hours
Where was it conducted, in an office or in an apartment: in a private apartment.
12. The results of searcha. what was seized and what receipt was received concerning money, official seals, documents, official correspondence?no answer
b. what was seized of personal belongings? The temporary Polish passport, Polish Theater and Film Artists' Union ID card, certificate from the [gulag] camp, statement of the Polish representative; these were not returned.
c.what was left over, in whose care and what was the form of the receipt for the leftover belongings? no answer
13. The place and date of imprisonment: 23 July 1942
14. The place, date and circumstances of the beginning and end of investigation: 24 July 1942
15. Content of the formal charge including the paragraph and section of the Penal Code: anti-Soviet agitation, religious propaganda among Soviet citizens, helping primarily those citizens who were hostile to the USSR, years of spying against the Soviet state. Par. 955-10-11-6.
16. Questions asked during interrogation: no answer
17. Treatmenta. by interrogators: very unpleasant physically, and even more so psychologically
b. in prison: relatively good
18. Place, date, circumstances of sentencing: Karaganda, 27 October 1942. I was told that by the decision of a special meeting in Moscow I was sentenced for hostility to the USSR, and that I would be deported from the USSR.
20. Executive order and orders of the authorities during sentencing and during release from prison: I was told to sign a declaration that I was informed about the sentence and that I would leave Karaganda in 24 hours.
21. Names, surnames, and addresses of family members who have to be evacuated in connection with the deportation from the USSR of the accused: Ozjasz Eker, Pepi Eker, Emanuel Eker.
Signed: Roza Eker

NOTES1 These are authentic questionnaires, originally in Polish, filled out by Mr. Leon Eker and Ms. Rosa Eker as they were seized by the Soviet police in July 1942. Ms. Eker was a representative of the Polish government in exile in the city of Karaganda in Kazakhstan, and Mr. Eker was her deputy. The Polish government's ambassador, headquartered in Kuibyshev, set up small representative offices in the regions to which large numbers of Poles were deported after the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939. The directors of these offices were often former Soviet prisoners. We do not know what happened to the Ekers and their family.
2 After the German invasion of the USSR, the Russians established relations with the Polish government in exile in London, with a view to allowing Poles to continue fighting against Germany.
3 Predecessor of the KGB, known for its barbarous treatment of Poles and others.
4 Ambassador Stanislaw Kot represented in the USSR the Polish government in exile headquartered in London.
5 The Polish Embassy in Kuibyshev was allowed to mobilize the Poles not yet killed in the gulag and make them join the Polish Army in order to fight against the Soviets' erstwhile ally: Nazi Germany.